Just How Far is the Moon From the Earth

Feb, 25 2011

The moon as you know is the closest astronomical object to Earth. But many people don't grasp just how far away it is no less how far away other planets in our solar system are as well as how far other solar systems are.

Humans have a hard time understanding the scale that is space so let's go over just how far away the closest object to Earth really is. The moon is on average approximately 235,000 miles (380,000 km) from Earth. Let's put that into perspective. Earth's Circumference at the Equator is 24,901.55 miles (40,075.16 km) so that means you would have to fly around the world almost 10 times to travel the same distance as the moon!

Here we've got a video of going out on the streets to ask the public how far they think the moon is and see how close the average person is. We have a basket ball representing the Earth and a tennis ball representing the moon which are both surprisingly close to scale and we'll ask them how far away from each other they think they should be. So let's see what the people have to say!

How Far Do You Think the Moon is From the Earth - Video

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So as you can see the distance from the Earth to the moon is much more then most people realize. Most space missions are not that far from Earth they are just right outside our orbit. So when you think about it, taking a trip to the moon takes a lot of power and is quite the accomplishment. Keep that in mind next time you look up at the moon and think Wow We've been there!